The Beat: The Myspace Issue (November 2022)

Letter from the Editor

To my Beat-boxers,

Ah, the early 2000s, the home of glitter and glam, scenes and screens, and oh so much eyeliner! Today, we celebrate that unorthodox beauty of the clunky, the vestigial, and the painfully obsolete. Join me, dear reader, in scaling that most daunting peak in collective memory that we know to be MySpace!

Am I myself too young to have had a MySpace account? Perhaps. But is the greatest beauty not that found in the yearning for a time unkonwn to ourselves, one just out of our personal temporal grasp? In these pages, I feel the silver plastic of my mother’s Vonage flip phone; I feel the stylus of the neglected PDA; I feel, in essence, the concrete foundations of the era through its spirit and aesthetics.

I leave you, my friend, with this.

Best, MacLean Bishop Your Editor-in-Chief

(I was always a default avatar truther, myself.)

xx.Epic_Playlist.xx

Build God, Then We’ll Talk - Panic! At The Disco

Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne

Pink Light - ADDIE

DONTTRUSTME - 3OH!3

Misery Business - Paramore

Blurt - Mega Mango

Good Girls Go Bad - Cobra Starship

Dear Maria, Count Me In - All Time Low

Perfect Day - Hoku

1985 - Bowling For Soup

Cherry - Chromatics

...Baby One More Time - Britney Spears

Time to Dance - Panic! At The Disco

If Your Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough - Roger Alan Wade

Back To Black - Amy Winehouse

D.A.N.C.E - Justice

NOVEMBER

CALENDAR

BANDCAMP REVIEW:

Good Music and NOISE FOR NOW’s Abortion Rights Benefit Album

The music advocacy groups released the album “Good Music To Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All” on Band Camp on October 7th, featuring a compila tion of 49 songs from 49 artists, which raised over $230,000.

The album was available for purchase for only 24 hours on Band Camp, and all proceeds went to Abortion rights groups Brigid Alliance, Abortion Care Network, and NOISE FOR NOW. It featured new songs, demos, unreleased tapes, and live recordings from established artists like R.E.M, Pearl Jam, and David Byrne and Devo, as well as newer artists like Mac Demarco, Wet Leg, and Soccer Mommy.

The anthology was priced at $19.73 in honor of the year Roe V. Wade passed, and Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon created the cover. Her artwork featured the phrase “Liberate Abortion” messily painted in black atop a white background. A T-shirt sporting the cover image was available for sale alongside the album—the products generated over $230,000, which will go to the advocacy groups mentioned above.

Executive Director of NOISE FOR NOW expressed her appreciation for the artists who contributed to the album, “We know that this stellar group of musicians stands with the majority of Americans in believing that deci sions about if and when to grow a family are deeply personal, and we must trust people to make those decisions for themselves without shame, stigma or criminalization. Abortion is healthcare. Liberate Abortion!”

“Good Music To Ensure Safe Abortion Access to All” is the Good Music project’s latest advocacy/fundraising project with Band Camp. In 2020 they partnered for a similar stunt with the album “Good Music to Avert The Collapse Of American Democracy.” The anthology featured similar art ists, raised over $600,000, and donated the proceeds to voting rights organizations.

If you missed October 7th, the album is no longer available; however, you can still purchase the t-shirt for $35 at https://noisefornow.org/shop.

- Josephine Best

HAIKU-Y2(K)

modern romance

downloaded tinder ugh, why do they post pictures of gigantic fish

letting go

you are a grown man take off that snapchat filter make a linkedin page nostalgia

it is midnight and new taylor swift just dropped it’s 2013 tinder, revisited also, please do not google funny pick up lines they are not funny

ode to slack

what is a slack? I have the app but i don’t know what to use it for

- riley pavelek

a, like, interview,

Ben Hofmann (they/he) is a musician and BU student, and they grew up in the Boston area. Their work focuses on… well. Let’s have Ben explain. You can listen to Ben’s new single, “DIE LIKE THIS” on Nov. 4.

VB: What is your major? What are you studying?

BH: I’m studying philosophy and psychology. So not music at all. But… the reason why I was drawn to those two majors is because, like in my music, a lot of what I like to do is like more just like exploring myself in the world, and like how I think of things and so like That’s a little bit more of the component behind psych and philosophy, rather than if I were to just study music. I’m not as interested in the technical musicality of it… I accept that. I’m very much like a student when it comes to the actual music aspects of things.

VB: You mentioned identity, and how identity shapes your music. Can you speak a little more on that? And what identities do you think you bring to the table when you are making music?

BH: Well, okay, I think the reason why I started getting into music in high school, and like specifically releasing things, was because I felt like I just was like, very easy to be “typed”. A specific example would be like sexuality, …everyone labeled it…I was very easy to label, and not only in sexuality, but just in many different ways. And so part of what attracted me to music and to releasing my own music was because I could kind of create the narrative for myself in terms of how I wanted to be per ceived, and accept parts of myself, rather than just having other people put that on to me. I feel like my identity as like a gay queer, and non-binary person, definitely shapes a lot of it. But also another big reason why I got into music was because I was having a lot of health issues at the beginning of high school. And so it was also a way for me to cope with that. And now it’s just totally evolved.

VB: Can you tell me about your earliest memories on the Internet?

BH: I mean earliest like media I consumed. I like love this, but like I remember, literally 2009, the economy was crashing, and everything. Everything was going to shit. And I just remember

with, like, ben hofmann

sitting in front of the desktop computer watching the Love Game music video by Lady Gaga and just being fascinated, being like “this is what it is all about”.

BH: Before spotify, I was a huge… I would go to the library, and literally pick up any CD with an artist’s name that I recognize, and burn it onto my laptop. I was the king of ripping CD’s. It was my favorite thing to do. My first Frank Ocean CD was from the library. It was like, Carrie Underwood to Frank Ocean. There was no genre.

VB: Please tell me the name of the song that you’re dropping, when it’s dropping and like… What’s the vibe? What are you trying to reach with it?

BH: The name of the song is DIE LIKE THIS, in all caps. It’s coming out November 4th. I’m actually like super happy that you reached out because I actually really like this song, and a lot of the songs I put out, I don’t like them, but I just like to put them out because it’s still important that I release what I’ve written, and just have it out there. But this song I actually really do like. Who I’m trying to reach is very much just like myself, people who know me just my own understanding of things is like a lot of my stuff Isn’t really written for a general audi ence. But I still like when people listen to it, obviously. And the general vibe, I would say it’s very hopeful, because I wrote it when I was quite happy. But when I actually wrote the lyrics, I was surprised how just… different they were from the overall hope and happy feeling that I was feeling… So it’s like a weird juxtaposition with a hopeful instrumental track, and then kind of like really specific lyrics that aren’t… They’re just very explicit about what I was feeling at the time, and things that I was going through. But I really like it, honestly.

VB: I’m really looking forward to listening.

- Vanessa Bartlett

The RECIPE HAX for

hi folx n welcome 2 this months delish dish @ the beat eats. bc we r on myspace, we hav limited data n the food is going 2 reflect tht. here r some ez pz snax 2 make when ur surfing the webz.

we all buy kraft mac ‘n cheese sometimes when ramen is getting boring and we need a taste of childhood. remember the time before you were so tired it became part of your personality? if youre going to buy the microwavable variant, though, youre gonna need to en hance it every way you can. heres the deetz:

> only buy kraft for this, annie’s is too fancy > replace half of the required water with whole milk > microwave the container for 10 seconds less than the listed time, then add shredded cheddar and continue cooking until the cheese is melted (20-30 sec onds)

BETTER MAC ‘n CHEESE NOODLES for DAYS

speaking of being tired of ramen, its so 2013 to have shelves full of top ramen. you gotta branch out, try new things, and explore the wonderful world of ra men. maruchan ramen is a step up from top ramen, but its still the same old basic taste. good if you want to seem unique. nongshim shin ramen is the top tier stuff, spicy and flavorful and way more premium than anything else, but its still ramen. you heard me right, ramen is out. if you really want to up your noodle game, get yourself some yakisoba. any brand is good, but ippeichan is the cream of the crop, with the most umami sauce. for other yakisoba brands, add chipotle mayo (and yes i know thats a sin against ja pan but its good dont @ me).

EZ PZ EATZ

p0pc0rn :3

every once in a while, you just gotta give up and make yourself popcorn for dinner. its ok, we all do it, but if youre going to throw corn in the micro wave, you gotta do it right. the only acceptable brands are newmans own or orville redenbacher (and not just bc he died in his hot tub ((yes, google it))). burning popcorn is a sign of disrespect to every film major who lives within a two-mile radius of you, so dont be cocky and try and multitask while your popcorn pops. focus on a single task for once. when the popcorns done, dont be boring and season it with just salt, try one of these topping combos.

> sea salt and nutritional yeast

> white cheddar and za’atar

> curry powder and oregano

thats all for us here. go out there and… actually wait dont go out there, stay inside under ur blanket, eat ur noodles, and watch the latest episode of that cool new show on amc called breaking bad. i heard its rlly good.

he doesnt have a myspace music page, but u can listen 2 more of tobys food opinions on saturdays @ 8 am on all you can eat on wtbu radio. ttyl, - toby pannone

PEEL DREAM MAGAZINE

If you have been searching for an artist to listen to while you get your midterm studying going, look no further as Peel Dream Magazine got you covered. Peel Dream Magazine was created by LA-based indie/ alternative artist Joseph Stevens. His light vocals, airy guitar, and mellow beat is perfect for studying, as it is calm and will allow you not to get too distracted. Peel Dream Magazine’s latest album release Pad will have you set for studying during this mid term season!

- Nicole Levitsky

THE BEAT